Carlos II of Spain

Carlos II "el Hechizado" of Spain (6 November 1661-1 November 1700), also called Charles II the Bewitched was King of Spain from 1665 to 1700. A freak of nature, he was known for raving and drooling and was an incredibly unpopular king.

Biography
Carlos II was the son of Philip IV of Spain and Maria Anna of Austria, and he was a member of the House of Habsburg. He was treated as an infant until his was ten as h could not speak till four years, and walk till eight. The years of his reign were difficult for him, as the economy was stagnant, hunger rife in Spain, and warfare broke out in the Spanish Netherlands with the Kingdom of France in 1667. In 1679 he married Marie Louise of Orleans, a member of the French aristocracy, as a diplomatic agreement, but France's influence on Spain was still weak.

When his mother died in 1696, Charles finally reigned alone. He gradually grew into a monster, at one point telling his courtiers to exhume the bodies of his family so he could look upon their corpses. It was a relief that he died in 1700. The physician who practiced his autopsy stated that his body "did not contain a single drop of blood; his heart was the size of a peppercorn; his lungs corroded; his intestines rotten and gangrenous; he had a single testicle, black as coal, and his head was full of water." His death caused a succession crisis in Spain as Philip, Duke of Orleans became the new king, challenged by Habsburgs.